SometimeSmile
by Miiko Ashida
Summary: Leon is waiting at Hollow Bastion, and Sora needs a home base. It moves from there. But Sora is a hero, and heroes belong to all the people, so lovers have to learn to share.


Sometime-Smile

A collection of short snippets of dialogue or one-liners revolving around the relationship between Sora and Leon. Theme set of 50 words.

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* * *

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**1. Speak**

"You've moped in bed for five days now, Leon. What's going on?"

"Yuffie, I need to see –"

"Who?"

"I don't know." _I can't say the name. S–_

**2. Lack**

After the first half dozen months, that unnamed hole in Leon's existence had vanished. Over the next few, it faded to the vague feeling of something lacking – that irritating sensation of remembering a friend with whom you spent a summer, recalling bike rides and swimming, but not being able to give the memory a name. Only, this memory of Squall's was missing that, and a face.

He was healing, but he was not whole.

**3. While**

"Hey there. It's been awhile," said the boy on the doorstep.

"A lot has happened. I don't expect anything, Sora."

"I'll tell you everything, but it's a long story. I think you'll have to invite me in," the boy added pointedly, eyeing the way Leon completely blocked the door he held open.

**4. Borrowed**

"My room's up the hall, second door; there's a cot in the closet, hairbrush, toothpaste and shampoo in the bathroom, change of pyjamas in the second drawer of the dresser. I hope you don't mind if I come in pretty early in the morning, because that's too bad."

Sora looked halfway grateful and halfway stricken at the curt tone, but the scales tipped toward the former when Yuffie spoke, aghast,

"That's got to be more words than he's spoken to us in the last _year_."

**5. Walk**

Sora had wondered how much everyone would have changed while he was asleep, but as Leon took him on a walk around Hollow Bastion's village, pointing out what he'd helped rebuild and what still needed work, silence hung between them as always but Leon smiled (which Sora had never seen before), and he knew only the right things had.

**6. Mine**

Leon fought to keep it all abstract: he protected Hollow Bastion, not Aeris or Yuffie or Cid. He fought with a replaceable weapon, not his personal gunblade. If nothing in particular was his, he could not lose anything.

Naturally, when he found himself protecting _Sora_, not the Keyblade and its master, he knew he was going to get hurt.

He kept fighting anyway to keep something as his own.

**7. Beauty**

"It's the most beautiful place in the world," Leon said with reverent, loving, almost-awe, and Sora felt like a voyeur to something personal until Leon's gloved hands tugged him out into the streaming orange-purple-pink light of the sun setting over Hollow Bastion, and they watched the sky go black together.

**8. Catch**

"I saw that," Sora giggled, pointing at Leon's face. "That's three this week."

"Congratulations, you caught me smiling," Leon replied dryly. "You don't need to count them."

"If it happened more often, I wouldn't be able to."

**9. Laugh**

He'd never ben one for physical contact, but as Leon tickled Sora's feet and stomach and anything-in-reach, he found himself wanting to keep doing it forever, just to hear that bubbling up of giggling from someplace deep inside Sora where he hoped he could maybe someday reach.

**10. Youth**

Had Sora looked so young, ever before? His age was deceiving. 15, and he didn't look a second past ten, all skinny limbs and round, rosy cheeks.

Maybe it was because he'd always been battling Heartless, not tucked into a peaceful, eyelash-fluttering sleep on the pullout sofa in Leon's living room.

**11. Feel**

Hugging was sort of uncomfortable (the height difference); kissing was worse (sloppy, slick, and again that stupid height thing); anything beyond that was way, way out of the question as things stood. But Leon decided sitting there in the bailey, talking and holding hands – yes, the warm touch of holding hands, _that_ was good.

**12. Push**

"What he needs is a little push. After that, he's pretty much at your mercy," advised Yuffie sagely. She and Sora sat high up on one of the thatched roofs, sipping contentedly at lemonade and watching people pass by below.

"Really?" Sora asked innocently.

Her grin flashed Cheshire-like in the evening half-light. "Just try it."

**13. Fill**

"No, not so full–"

"Don't worry, it's not going to– "

"Augh! Do you have any _idea_ what tea does to leather? Well?"

"...Um, no?"

"Er...Neither do I."

And then Sora was laughing, so Leon did, so it didn't really matter after all.

**14. Travel**

'_Message from Queen Minnie. _

_Important business at the castle. _

_I'll try to be back by Thursday. Sorry._

_xoxo _

_Sora', _said the note. Leon groaned and rolled back over, throwing an arm across the empty, cool mess of sheets beside him.

**15. Distraction**

"Focus, Sora!" Donald screeched as Sora very nearly dropped his Keyblade from limp fingers into Davey Jones' locker. "We have to find those pirates and get Elizabeth back!"

But the keybearer's mind was elsewhere, wondering what Leon would do if Sora was kidnapped, how far he'd follow, how worried he'd be, if he would mind the trouble. Maybe it would be nice to be rescued, for a change.

**16. Look**

"Is he flaunting or are you looking?" grinned Yuffie, following Leon's gaze to the seat of Sora's pants.

**17. Smoke**

Sora choked on Cid's cigarette smoke; it burned and made his eyes sting. Cid ignored him, eyes level. "Be careful around Leon. He's not as tough as he comes off," the aged pilot warned.

That sort of went without saying, but hey, Cid knew Sora's tendencies with breakable things.

**18. Perspective**

Sora told Yuffie that he saw Leon as the type of guy who'd snarl at you for breaking a dish and then insist on holding your hand when you crossed the street.

Yuffie laughed and said she couldn't imagine Leon holding his own kid's hand for any reason, if he had one.

Aeris knew Sora was right, and smiled, because she'd seen both sides of Leon, and Yuffie and Sora each saw a different one, but only one.

**19. Nothing**

"What do you remember about her?"

"Nothing. Just the name, Namine."

For some selfish reason, this answer gave Leon immense satisfaction.

**20. Show**

Leon was miffed when Sora ran a pair of his boxers up the flagpole for everyone to see, but there was a little room for forgiveness when Sora stripped out of his own and gave an even _better_ view, private-showing style, as an apology later that day.

**21. Second**

"It only hurts for a second," assured Sora, hand on Leon's shoulder.

The man couldn't let go of the heartless, exanimate husk they'd found by the gate; his hands were still groping vainly for a pulse.

"He didn't suffer." Slowly Sora pried Leon's fingers from the child's wrist.

It hurt a _lot_.

**22. Strength**

Tiny, scrawny little Sora was actually strong enough to worry for everyone, so Leon did the best he could by worrying about Sora.

**23. Hair**

"You need a haircut."

"Is that stoic-and-silent code for 'I'd like a lock of your hair as a memento'?"

"...Yes."

**24. Crash**

"I told you that skateboard was unsafe," Leon scowled as he cleaned a deep cut along Sora's elbow; the boy had taken a nosedive down the bailey stairs.

"Lots of things are. Like fighting vicious shadows that'll take your heart."

He had a point. "Some things are unavoidable. I didn't choose you to be keybearer."

"_Choose_to stop worrying."

**25. Loud**

"Tell them to _stop_," Yuffie moaned, squishing her pillow down over her head to muffle the din of grunts and panting drifting down from the room above theirs – Leon's. Aerith sighed, extracting herself from the book she was reading to rationalize,

"You and I both know Leon wants Sora to be prepared to fight Heartless. And if the only hours they can find for training are in the middle of the night, that's when it has to happen."

She nearly retracted that when there was an explosion-like sound from overhead (was he firing the Gunblade _inside_!), shaking dust and spiders out of the corners.

**26. Home**

"I'm looking at a house down in the village. If you don't make it back to your islands...you're welcome to stay with me. Or whatever."

Sora tried to imagine long days of Leon and a white picket fence, and the image was ridiculous but not at all unpleasant. The invitation he knew he could never accept was still a huge gift.

**27. Safe**

"Watch it!" Leon growled, grabbing Sora by the bicep as he tottered precariously on the wall. "You could _die_, idiot!" he snapped gruffly, eyes flashing.

Sora gave him a half-smile and hopped down. "I know I'm safe around you! Don't worry so much. Heh."

_I wish that were true_, Leon thinks about a girl who trusted him so much and a swarm of shadows dragging her down, screams pounding in his ears. Sora hugs him and the memory is back in the past, but there's no more wall-walking after that.

**28. Private**

"Oh, my," says Aerith.

"Eek!" shrieks Yuffie.

"Haven't you people ever heard of knocking!" roars Leon.

Sora makes a heroic leap back toward the shower, hands covering himself, as Leon runs stark naked and dripping wet into the hall, in an effort to chase the ninja-girl down.

**29. Light**

"He's a good kid."

Cloud nods thoughtfully. "With him, you always feel like you're standing in the light."

"I just wish..." Leon shakes his head, "I wish he wasn't always running off into the shadows."

**30. Finish**

"Ah, we're done!"

"No, you missed a spot. There," Leon pointed out, tucking a paintbrush into his belt. Sora frowned, swiping at the rafter.

"Here," sighed Leon, lifting the boy up as he gave a squeal. It worked, and the last layer of wood stain was laid on.

"Thanks," Sora grinned and wiped away a tiny splotch of stain on his nose.

**31. Canine**

"I had no idea potions worked on knocked-out teeth! Wow!"

"You are _lucky_ they do," said Leon, rubbing his sore jaw.

"Yeah, who wants to kiss a guy with a bunch of missing teeth?" Sora teased.

**32. Big**

"Happy brithday! 26 is a pretty big number! Wow, you're old," Sora ribbed, ducking when Leon reached to give him noogies.

"It's not like it's contagious or anything," grumbled Leon in reply.

**33. Want**

"You know what I want right now?"

"No."

"I don't want anything. It's perfect." Sora grins and Leon feels his own lips beginning to rise against his will. He hugs the boy with his tiny, stick-like body closer, and it's the best thing he's ever gotten or given anyone.

**34. Truth**

"I'm coming back, you know," Sora said, not struggling against Leon's tight embrace – the second, and only other, they'd ever shared.

"Is that a promise?" the man whispered.

Sora leaned into his shoulder. "More like an educated guess."

**35. Order**

"Organiztion" was something that did not exist at Cid's shop. This was clear to Sora when he came across Leon, pinned beneath a mountain of junk which had apparently exploded from a closet he was trying to open. It was one of those things where one is compelled to simply stand and laugh before helping out, not matter how kindhearted one is.

**36. Ask**

"What happened to you, Leon?"

"See that?" He points to a picture frame on the dresser, smiling darkhaired girl inside, two rings on a thin silver chain around her neck. Sora nods. "Her."

_Don't ask, don't tell._

**37. Think**

"Hey, want a drink?"

"I'm _15_," Sora wrinkled his nose. "That's a no, by the way."

Leon shrugged, downing a shot of clear, silvery liquid. "Makes it easier not to think."

**38. Law**

"There should be a law against that," pants Sora, beaming tiredly over at Leon, who replies,

"I think there is. In about nine separate worlds."

"Lucky this place is sort of lawless, then. Let's do it again."

**39. Begin**

"Don't look at it as a fork in our road. Look at it as the beginning of a whole new one, and they meet up somewhere down the line."

**40. Race**

There are an awful lot of stars out there – other worlds that need Sora – and Leon has this sense he's losing to every one of them at once.

**41. Through**

"One day he's gonna go into one'o those doors an' not come back out. You sure you're okay with that?" Cid sounds more concerned than he looks, but they're both kind of like his kids so the eventuality of it is actually tearing him apart.

"No."

"He'd probably stay of you asked 'im to."

"...but I have to let him go."

**42. Candy**

"Would he like this one? Or maybe this, over here?"

Sora darted between the candy shop's display cases frantically. Behind him, Aerith giggled. "He'll like whatever you get him as much as anything else." _Because Leon hates sweets._

**43. Day**

"We have to get up. C'mon. Today's the day."

Sora didn't have his sunny face on today, and Leon just wanted another five minutes until he could wake up without having to say goodbye again.

**44. Stay**

"You're leaving again, huh?" _Keep it cool, uncaring. Keep it _together_, Leonheart._

"I'd like to stay here as much as you want me to, you know. But I have–" _A home. Riku. Mom. Kairi._

Leon had never seen Sora really cry before.

He never saw Sora again.

**45. Familiar**

Riku was quiet, solemn, strong; Riku felt warm and safe. Riku even stroked a hand along the base of his neck – "Just like _him_..."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, Le– Riku."

**46. Need**

"Is it one of those can't-eat-can't-sleep-can't-breathe-without-him kind of things?"

He wouldn't ask her to try and understand it. "Whatever, Yuffie." How does someone so adamantly independent explain that he's begun to need another person's touch to survive?

**47. Fear**

It was an awfully big sky, Sora decided. A long way to go to find just one person.

Fear of the unknown was a strong fear, but separation anxiety was stronger.

**48. Splash**

He wakes up (alone), goes into the bathroom (and doesn't have to fight for it), and splashes a little water onto his face. Limp hair (a little too long and shaggy), bags under his eyes (and he hasn't been up doing anything enjoyable): in the dingy mirror, Leon can see himself right back at the beginning.

**49. Damage**

Leon broke three times: losing Rinoa at Hollow Bastion; meeting someone who was impossibly kind and caring, but never looked his way; dropping his walls just to lose Sora to all the other needy, broken souls out there.

**50. Together**

"Okay, everybody! Smile!" Sora held the camera at arm's length and counted from three.

The camera holding that picture of Yuffie, Aerith, Cid, Leon, the ever-elusive Cloud, and himself was still tucked in a bag at under his bed. They were all happy, even Leon, with an arm around Sora's waist and the other hand tugging Yuffie's hair (even if he wasn't smiling). Once he got it developed, he'd have to find some way to send it to them all.


End file.
